So How Will Republicans Handle This New Orleans Hurricane?

This has already had a political impact for the leaders in the states affected. Governor Bobby Jindal has pulled out of the Republican Convention, joining Florida Governor Rick Scott (the Republican Governors of Alabama and Mississippi were not scheduled to speak). Jindal had a speaking slot in the 8:00 hour on Wednesday.

More important than that, viewers tuning in for the convention can expect a split-screen of Republicans whooping it up over small government plans in Tampa, while government evacuation and emergency efforts persist to the west in the Gulf. The hope is that all emergency efforts go smoothly and there’s no bad news to report. But thanks to the response to Katrina in 2005, the optics of a Gulf hurricane are now a net negative for the GOP. They will have to deal with that juxtaposition in imagery.

“The optics of a Gulf hurricane are now a net negative for the GOP.” Here’s how I imagine the GOP thinks about this situation:

Option 3. They’ll just do what they did last time and use email smear forwards and other methods to imply (or state outright) that the residents of New Orleans are just a bunch of stupid lazy black people who should never have put their homes where they did and who are too stupid to evacuate themselves properly. Doesn’t matter how often these smears are debunked, the GOP’s racist crazy base will eat them up.

You have to admit, the Republicans lead charmed lives. After having destroyed the American economy, squandered the nation’s strength on pointless wars, oppressed the people through unjust voting laws and a national security state, and been exposed as massively corrupt puppets of venal and vicious billionaires, they still could win this election.

New Orleans is going to keep sinking into the ground it is built on, no matter what we do. And the oceans are rising, anyway. The damn place is mostly underwater without tides or storms. It should be turned into marshland. (See “Bayou Farewell,”
an excellent book on the topic.)

W wasn’t that dumb, essentially abandoning the city. But he didn’t have the guts to say so, nor did he have the heart and
balls required to forthrightly address the problem and the needs of the people. Nothing new there. If only Obama would.
Nothing new there, either.

Stormcrowsaid

It doesn’t take very much reflection to understand why New Orleans is going to be rather heavily populated, until such time as dikes as massive and sophisticated as anything the Dutch would build, become impractical.

Which hasn’t happened yet.

First, study a map of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Basin. Carefully.

Then look up “Port of New Orleans” on Google. Its Wikipedia page begins as follows …

The Port of New Orleans is a port located in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the 1st in the United States based on volume of cargo handled …

If you’re still having difficulties, I really can’t help you much further.